NORMANDY, Mo. -- Students at a suburban St. Louis high school headed to the gymnasium for HIV testing this week after an infected person told health officials as many as 50 teenagers might have been exposed to the virus that causes AIDS.
Officials refused to give details on who the person was or how the students at Normandy High School might have been exposed, but the district is consulting with national AIDS organizations as it tries to minimize the fallout and prevent the infection - and misinformation - from spreading.
"There's potential for stigma for all students regardless of whether they're positive or negative," Normandy School District spokesman Doug Hochstedler said Thursday. "The board wants to be sure all children are fully educated."
The St. Louis County Health Department said last week that a positive HIV test raised concern that students at Normandy might have been exposed. The department is not saying whether the infected person was a student or connected with the school, only that the person indicated as many as 50 students may have been exposed.
The Health Department also will not say how any exposure might have occurred. Health Department spokesman Craig LeFebvre has said the possibilities include sexual activity, intravenous drug use, piercings and tattoos.
Hochstedler said the district doesn't know the person's identity, or even whether he or she is a student.
"We do know there was some potential exposure between that person and students," he said. "We don't know the individual or the route of transmission."
The district learned Oct. 9 of the potential exposure and within a business day worked out with the Health Department how to release the information and handle testing, he said.
"They took a very proactive stance," he said. "There's no precedent for this."
Students are being tested at six stations in the high school gymnasium, one class at a time. Only representatives from the Health Department are with the students, who are offered educational materials and a chance to ask questions before they are given an opportunity to be tested with a mouth swab, Hochstedler said. They may decline.
They exit through a separate door, and no one in the school would know who did or did not get tested.
"It's entirely up to the student," he said. "There's a lot of stigma associated with this."
The district will never know whether or how many of its students tested positive, he said.
"Once they're tested," he said, "it's an issue between the department and the child and his family."
So far, the district has met twice with parents and begun to ask ministers in the community to stress the importance of responsible behavior, Lawrence said.
Students in grades four through 12 already take classes that discuss the consequences of risky behavior, including HIV, he said.
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I wonder what this person did at the school? Teacher? Hmmmm.
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